Multi objective optimization of the amines- CO2 capture absorption-desorption process by a non-equilibrium rate model Academic Article in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • © 2022 Institution of Chemical EngineersThe global concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing rapidly. CO2 emissions have an impact on global climate change. Carbon dioxide capture technologies have been proposed as a promising alternative to reducing CO2 emissions from fossil fuel power plants with post-combustion capture. Amine-based chemical absorption is considered the most industrially developed technology for this kind of process. In this work, a strategy for defining the relationships between design and the operational policies in CO2 capture technologies is addressed. The solution to the problem consists in maximizing the percentage of the CO2 removal, while the stripper reboiler duty is minimized. Since both objective functions in conflict, a multi-objective optimization approach is proposed to achieve a trade-off. Moreover, due to the highly non-ideal behavior in the heat and mass transfer phase, a fully rigorous model was used to capture this strongly non-linear behavior. In addition, an economic evaluation of the heating and cooling utilities in the stripper according to the operation process is carried out. The results show the importance of considering the significance between the influence of operating variables (i.e., temperature, liquid solvent flow rate, and operating pressure) on the amount of CO2 removed and the associated reboiler duty. It shows that both optimal operating policies can be traded-off. Finally, with 30 wt% of MEA solvent, the compromise solution presents a 77% CO2 capture with an energy consumption of 4.98 GJ/t of CO2 for the reboiler service, a cost of heat utilities per year of $3971 capturing 142.29 kg/h of CO2.

publication date

  • November 1, 2022